FAQ

In 1912 the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) persuaded the British government to grant Ireland Home Rule, limited self government with provision for progressive full independence in the same manner as Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc This was strongly opposed by Irish Unionists (Irish people who wished to remain British and overwhelmingly various denominations of Protestantism) who feared that they would be discriminated against by Irish Nationalists (Irish people who wished full independence from the rest of the British Isles and overwhelmingly Roman Catholic) who would not support Britain in wartime. Unionists formed their own 100,000 strong armed militia, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) to demand that if Ireland was to be allowed to secede from the United Kingdom the six most North-Easterly and pro-Unionist counties of Ireland should be allowed to secede and remain part of Britain (what would become known as Northern Ireland). In response to this Irish Nationalists formed their own militia, the Irish Volunteers to force Northern Ireland to remain part of Home Rule Ireland. Civil War threatened but World War One then broke out and both sides went to fight for Britain in the conflict.

In 1916 a thousand strong extremist nationalist splinter faction of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish National Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army (a quasi communist 100 strong group) conspired with Germany to stage an armed rebellion in Dublin and a few other areas of Ireland. They were countered by the Dublin Metropolitan Police, Royal Irish Constabulary and various local army garrisons such as the Royal Irish Regiment, Royal Dublin Fusiliers and even the Officer Training Corps of Trinity University. The rising would kill over 400 people, mostly civilians caught in the crossfire.